(In)securitising the eastern neighbourhood. The European Union eastern partnership’s normative dilemma: Resilience versus principled pragmatism

Abstract

Drawing on (in)securitisation theory as developed by the Political Anthropological Research for International Sociology school, this chapter addresses the central normative dilemma of the European Union’s (EU’s) Eastern Partnership (EaP)—resilience versus principled pragmatism—and offers an alternative conceptual framework. The chapter first examines the EaP’s raison d’être after Euro-Maidan and annexation of Crimea in the context of a profound shift in the EU’s international actorness and identity in terms of a transition from ethical power Europe to pragmatic empire Europe. The second part of the chapter explains an even more salient (in)securitisation of the EU EaP, stemming from principled pragmatism as modus operandi for the EU resilience-building in the EU’s eastern neighbourhood. In the concluding part of the chapter, it is emphasised that the ongoing depoliticisation of the EaP substantially limits the overall normative impact of the EU’s eastern neighbourhood policy.